Lever 58 disconnected

Are you sure the lever unit itself is not broken? I'm told they are prone to that, and my car has two different lever assemblies from another model Ferrari as a result of this. I suppose the push/pull wire could break, but that seems less likely. If the wire housing itself just came loose, it's not too hard to fix (been there done that) but the console top needs to come loose, which is a bit of a project that requires some care. I would recommended disconnecting the battery to prevent shorting the lighter assembly.

 

The original levers have a housing/bezel that is made of plastic and with age seems to become brittle and prone to breakage. I have just replaced all my original slide lever bezels with replacement bezels that are chromed metal and more durable. They did require a bit of modification, though, to accept the actual levers from the old assemblies. Not difficult, just tedious and time consuming. The lever assemblies have a metal mounting bracket that sits on the underside of the center console. This bracket has an integral clamping feature that holds the cable housing for the respective lever, be it R/L defroster, hot/cold lever, or choke. Perhaps that clamp loosened on your hot/cold lever and the cable housing is no longer secure. The cable itself is a stiff wire within that housing, the end of which is secured through a hole in a bolt in the end of the lever handle and held by a nut. Perhaps the cable itself has pulled out of the bolt. Again, not a difficult fix, but a bit tedious. Without that hot/cold lever working you obviously lose the ability to regulate temperature in the cabin. The other possibilities are that the cable wire itself has snapped, or that it has become detached at the other end. Has the lever just recently become inoperable? I ask this on the thought that possibly a prior owner disconnected the cable on purpose for some reason. Whatever the circumstance, I would recommend repairing it.

 

The top of the console is removable.

- As bitsobrits said, disconnect the battery.
- Remove the ashtray insert, then remove the 2 screws underneath and remove the ashtray housing.
- Lift the forward section up enough so that the cigarette lighter clears the cross member underneath then pull the whole assembly forward to release the rear clip.
- Have a rag handy to protect the console because the clip on the rear of the top is very sharp!

 

The seats do not have to come out. The center console panel can be removed to access the levers/cables below. Remove the ash tray insert and you will see two small screws in the bottom of the ash tray housing. Remove these, remove the ash tray housing by pulling it up, then pull up and forward on the center console panel and it should come out revealing the underlying cables/levers/wires/switches. Also, pull up the handbrake lever before doing this to provide more room to manipulate the console panel. As Steve mentioned in post #2, be careful to avoid shorting the cigarette lighter assembly as you remove the console. When I completed the work on my slide levers as described in my prior post, I chose not to reconnect the cigarette lighter.

 

Can be done with the seats in.

 

AW Italian sells chrome plated metal bezels to replace the original plastic ones.

As said above, they require some minor modification to make the levers work with them.

https://awitalian.com/product/defroster-heater-lever-bezel-aw930835.html/

 

I found the sleeves of some of my cables were very sticky. I sprayed some deep creep to clean out the gunk and then followed that with dry lithium lubricant... now they work very well with no issues.

 

The best way to lubricate the cable wire, which is inside of an outer sheath, is to use a motorcycle cable lubricator. The outer cable needs to be disconnected from the clamp and the inner wire needs to be released from the anchor screw. Set up the lubricator, preferably at both ends, and spray a lubricant in the lubricator that will clean and lubricate the cable. If you get lucky. the lubricant will come out the other end. Once the cable is moving freely, you will have to re-adjust the cable to insure that its operation, is moving the heater door and temperature valve properly. To get access to the cable end at the front, you do have to remove the plastic spare wheel cover to gain access to the heating system parts. Once adjusted and lubed, it should be a one and done job. While you are in there, clean the heater boxes and replace the filters also.

 

I found 16 gauge solid wire at Home Depot to be the largest to fit in these and greased lubricate as new inserted.

Verrell seller has the super not scrtachable faces and new production levers for many of these